Book Review
Children of the Light: The Near-Death Experiences of Children by Cherie Sutherland. Bantam Books,
1995.
A fascinating collection of stories from Australian children who have ventured beyond the veil of death and returned to tell us their story. These accounts are particularly interesting as young children would be most unlikely to be able to fabricate stories of what they have seen there. Each Near-Death-Experience (NDE) is unique in its own way, and yet they share basic principles in common which suggest that the children are speaking of a shared reality that they experienced after death. Without exception the children were much changed after their NDE and as adults recounting their experience later in life. They tell of a wonderful ‘land’ bathed in intense white light and pervaded by love and compassion that they were
often reluctant to leave to return to the physical world once again. Daniel, aged 14, best sums up the comments of the other children in this book when he said in one of the interviews: “Death’s all right. I know I could die at any time so I live just each day. I’d say to people who are dying,
'Don’t be afraid. It’s a beautiful place.' ” – Andrew
Rooke (Theosophy Downunder,
August 2008)
Book Reviews